Berlin Raceway announces plans to change Late Model class for 2012 season

Terry Senneker Jr. celebrated his Berlin Raceway Late Model track championship in Victory Lane after clinching the title last Saturday night, then wondered aloud if the moment marked the end of an era.

"I could be Berlin’s last Late Model track champion," said Senneker, of Wayland.

It appears so. Berlin promoter Mike Blackmer announced that the Outlaw Late Models will no longer be a weekly class at the Marne half-mile beginning in 2012, although that doesn’t mean the end of that style of racing at Berlin.

Berlin and Port City Racecars of Muskegon have teamed up to create the Port City Racecars Outlaw Late Model Series, which will run eight times at Berlin next year.

Rules will be set by Nov. 1, but the payout will offer $2,500 to win and $500 to start for each race.

Blackmer said the cost to run the Late Models on a weekly basis has become too expensive for drivers and tracks. That’s why the fields have dwindled in recent years. He added that he is confident that the new series will beef up the car counts since the rules will be aligned with tracks across the state.

"We are going to have a whole new rules package for the Outlaws, and they will be pretty much the same rules that the east side of the state runs," Blackmer said. "No one can currently come here and race with us because our rules are so different from everybody else’s, and it showed this year. We got no outsiders.

"To be competitive, we have to change the cars, and change them so they are the same as Dixie and Owosso and Flat Rock and Toledo. That’s what we are doing. Port City Racecars has jumped on board. They are sponsoring it, and getting Port City to step up has been huge. Port City is one of the top chassis builders in the United States, and to get them to back us is great for the Late Model drivers."

Late Models have been a weekly class at Berlin since 1970. The track introduced the Premier Boyne Machine Super Lates this season, which is a template-bodied Late Model, and Blackmer said that division will return next year for eight races. That will give fans 16 Late Model programs in 2012 since the Super Lates and the Outlaw Late Models won’t be raced on the same nights.

Berlin’s schedule will be released in November, but Blackmer said that The Chet, an annual Late Model race in honor of Berlin founder Chester Mysliwiec, will serve as the series' championship race.